Semiotext(e) is an independent publisher founded in 1974 by Sylvère Lotringer. Initially known for introducing French theory to American readers, Semiotext(e) has become one of America’s most influential independent presses. Publishing works of theory, fiction, economics, satire, sexuality, science fiction, activism, and confession, the press’s highly curated list has famously melded high and low forms of cultural expression into a nuanced and polemical vision of the present. Semiotext(e) authors include Jean Baudrillard, William S. Burroughs, Didier Eribon, Catherine Breillat, the Invisible Committee, Eileen Myles, Veronica Gonzalez Peña, David Wojnarowicz, Abdellah Taïa, Idris Robinson, Félix Guattari, Reynaldo Rivera, Dodie Bellamy, Gary Indiana, Jackie Wang, Natasha Stagg, Ian Penman, Franco “Bifo” Berardi, Constance Debré, Houria Bouteldja, Serge Daney, Hervé Guibert, and Peter Sloterdjik. An anthology, Hatred of Capitalism, was published in 2001 to mark Semiotext(e)’s move to the MIT Press as its distributor.

For ICA LA’s Bookshelf Residency, Semiotext(e) celebrates its fiftieth anniversary by presenting a rotating selection of titles spanning the entire history of the press. The installation will feature books currently in print alongside rarities from the press’s backlist, as well as limited-edition pamphlets and apparel not widely distributed. During the residency, Semiotext(e) will also collaborate with ICA LA’s Learning & Engagement department on a series of public programs highlighting the press’s community of writers and artists.

The residency coincides with an Annex Gallery exhibition titled Desert Islands, which reimagines the genre of the “museum didactic” by presenting language culled from Semiotext(e)’s influential catalog. To mark the occasion, the press will also publish a new pamphlet: a facsimile reproduction of poet David Rattray’s never-before-published English translation of Antonin Artaud’s 1947 radio play Pour en Finir avec le Jugement de Dieu (To Have Done With the Judgment of God), which was infamously banned in France before its broadcast. The typescript was recently rediscovered among the papers of Semiotext(e)’s late founder Sylvère Lotringer.

Semiotext(e) was founded by Sylvère Lotringer. Today, it is co-edited by Hedi El Kholti and Chris Kraus.